A new report from Children First for Oregon suggests more children in Coos and Curry counties are living in poverty and have limited access to health care. And it’s only going to get worse.

In Coos County, the child poverty levels are considered quite high, with a 27 percent rate. The state average is 16.9. Curry County has 20.8 percent.

Cathy Kaufmann, policy and communications director for Children First for Oregon, said the latest statistics used in the 2008 County Date Book don’t necessary reflect the impacts of the recession.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

Access to health care is a problem in Curry County. Only 58 percent of Curry County mothers received adequate prenatal care, while 74 percent of Coos County mothers had access to care. The state average was 78 percent, a decline from previous years.

And there are 13,770 students for every full-time equivalent school nurse in Curry County, while Coos Bay has a ratio of 1,050. The preferred ratio is 750 students per nurse. 

The statistic Judy McMakin is interested in is the rate of abuse and neglect victims. In Coos County, that was 135 children, 10.5 percent. That’s 11 percent better than the previous year, though it’s still 54 percent worse than the state average.

Kaufmann said abuse and neglect victims have suffered physical or sexual abuse, or the victims are found to be deprived of necessities like food.

McMakin, who is the director of the Coos County Commission on Children and Families, said the goal is to have the abuse rate drop to 7.9 percent.

There are several ways local agencies are working to make that happen.

Southwestern Oregon Community College offers parenting classes. Coos County Public Health has its Healthy Beginnings programs to aid families during pregnancy, birth and childhood. And a number of agencies are involved in the Coos County Zero to Three Program, designed to help families in dependency court access a variety of services including family therapy.

McMakin said the increasing poverty rates in the state could lead to more child neglect, though she said it doesn’t necessarily mean there will be more abuse.

“Abuse can happen at any economic level,” she said.

That isn’t to say children living in poverty don’t face challenges, and it is those challenges Kaufmann hopes the Legislature will address. Children First for Oregon wants expanded health coverage for children and employee-funded paid family leave.

“The Legislature must do something to help struggling families right now and at the top of their list should be making sure every child has health coverage,” Kaufmann said in a press release.

She noted there are hundreds of millions of dollars in matching federal funds that the state’s children could qualify for if they received benefits.

Another area of concern is health-care access in rural communities. Kaufmann noted that Coos and Curry counties actually saw some improvement with children covered by medical insurance, as many as one in 10 children on the South Coast don’t have insurance, whereas the state rate is at 12.6 percent.

“More and more kids will lose insurance as their parents lose their jobs,” she said.